Game On!

Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas) is a pioneer in esports education. Gaming is a digital form of leisure and a huge industry. There are approximately three billion gamers on this planet (Newzoo, 2021). Some people play casual games after a hard day’s work to relax, whereas for others it is a lifestyle. Creative Media and Game Technologies educates students to design and develop these games. Esports is the pillar of gaming that goes beyond its digital environment. These are titles played competitively in an organised way with official teams, tournaments and competitions. In esports it is quite common that fans watch tournaments and cheer for their favourite players and team, sometimes without actively playing the games themselves.

Jur van de Graaf and Liedewei Ratgers are both lecturers at the Academy for Leisure & Events involved in the Sports and Esports specialisation and the Esports Event and Media Management minor.

Developing a local esports ecosystem
International elite tournaments attract millions of online spectators and thousands of onsite fans. Esports is interactive and dynamic. This makes it an attractive platform for brand activations to reach younger generations with a short attention span (Singer, 2017). However, there is an enormous gap between these elite tournaments and the lower-tier tournaments. With the municipality of Breda, BUas is working on developing a local esports ecosystem to take a step towards bridging this gap.

The cornerstone of a successful local esports ecosystem is the gaming culture. It is a social phenomenon that is both online and offline. Events such as ComicCon and GameForce attract thousands of gaming enthusiasts because they want to meet like-minded people in person. A local esports ecosystem requires online but also physical locations where these enthusiasts feel at home, a place where they can safely express their identity. This can only be done in one way: taking the esports fans seriously as who they are and acknowledging without prejudice what moves them. In the Leisure and Events programme, BUas offers a specialisation focused on sports and esports communities, spectators and fans. With courses on fan experience and businesses in sports and esports, and projects in sports experience production and live- stream production.

The cornerstone of a successful local esports ecosystem is the gaming culture.

Opening of The Hive
BUas recently opened The Hive on its campus. The Hive is a location where esports and gaming enthusiasts can meet, socialise, train and compete. It is also the home to Breda Guardians, BUas’ very own esports team that already has some great achievements in Valorant, Rocket League and CS:GO. The community members are from different BUas academies and even different educational institutes in Breda, such as De Rooi Pannen and Avans University of Applied Sciences.

In the short period since The Hive has opened, the results have exceeded expectations. The community has already truly transcended the individual student programmes. It is run and carried by and for students under the supervision of lecturers. Placement students are responsible for the daily operations of community and event management. Their efforts are part of the bigger dream to host large, recurring esports events in Breda.

The Hive also serves as an extension of esports education and research. Like a hotel school has a restaurant, esports education requires a physical esports location. Students from the Sports & Esports specialisation and the Esports Event and Media Management minor have organised a series of events where theory and practice come together. Esports is a dynamic industry, so education programmes need to be continuously adapted to the changing needs of the industry, community and students.

The future of esports is exciting with endless opportunities. Feel free to contact us to explore and further develop the community. You can find us in The Hive on the BUas campus (Fe0.032) and on Discord https://discord.gg/Ar7YhzR257.

Sources

• Newzoo (2021). Newzoo Global Games Market Report 2021. Consulted on 8 November 2021, from https://newzoo.com/insights/trend-reports/newzoo-global-games-market-report-2021-free-version/
• Singer, D. (2017). We are wrong about millennial sports fans. McKinsey. Consulted on 8 November 2021, from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/we-are-wrong-about-millennial-sports-fans